Spells. Things that go bump in the night. Such events are medical mysteries in need of solving. As a consulting neurologist, I've learned that part of my job is to be a "phenomenologist." To explain, if possible, the unexplained. To puzzle out mystery-symptoms and odd phenomena. And one of the hardest (but most intellectually stimulating) diagnoses to make is that of "spells." That's what I call episodes that come and go, that have a beginning and an end—and something unusual in between. The .